Photo By Gail
Before Andy Warhol became the king of Pop Art, he made his living as one of New York City’s most sought-after commercial illustrators. In the 1950s, his whimsical shoe drawings became a signature of his early career, appearing in advertisements and promotional materials for the fashionable department store Bonwit Teller, as well as in his own self-published artist books.
Continue reading Pink Thing of The Day: Pink Shoe By Andy Warhol
Photo By Gail
The catalyst for Andy Warhol’s transformation from commercial to fine artist was a 1961 display window that he created for the Bonwit Teller Department Store at Fifth Avenue and 56th Street. The window displayed five of Warhol’s newest paintings as a backdrop to mannequins wearing Bonwit’s fashions. Representing Warhol’s first foray into what would become Pop Art, these paintings depicted commercial imagery from ads and comics, overlaid with gestural drips and blotches of Abstract Expressionism. The Bonwit window introduced Warhol’s characteristic practice of elevating pop culture into fine art that he continued to explore for the rest of his career.
Photographed as part of the Gay Gotham Exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York.